Backyard Fountain

Raj and I have been working on the back yard all summer. We have done a lot back there, but it's slow going! We've been removing the walkway that has river rock on it. It takes quite along time to pull all of them up. We didn't want to just throw a way the rock, so we've decided to use the rock's in the flower beds sort of like a dry river bed. We got one bed finished yesterday, we even added a small fountain. Here are some pictures.

Before: What a mess!



After clearing it out, and laying down landscaping fabric:



The water fountain..we buried the cord in the ground inside a pvc pipe.



The finished bed:





We would like to add something at the top of the bed...maybe a large fountain grass...what do you think?

New flower pots and flowers...

Every year I order flowers from Emmi's pre-school fundraiser. They are great flowers. I love when they arrive. This year,I bought some new pots to sit on the front porch. The flowers are growing well...hope they last all summer long!

Front Yard...It's done!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to clean up our front yard. This included the patio...I originally wanted to take out the existing patio and replace it with slate, however a quick check of the checking account and that idea was out the window! So we decided on leaving the material and add to it. I think it turned out really well. You can definitely tell the "new" pavers from the "old" pavers, but in time I think they will start to age. Here are some pictures of the process:

What it looked like before...YUCK!



After the first round of "round-up" and some flowers added in pots:



Adding to the Patio:















We also trimmed up all the hedges and shrubs and put down barkdust. Here are some pictures of the yard after all our hard work!

No more Gallbladder...

I just found this post as a draft-so I thought I'd finally post it. Funny how I hardly remember any of this stuff now that it's been a few years since the surgery.
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Well, I finally had my gallbladder removed. After living in pain for 3 years...it's all gone. I tried everything to keep my gallbladder, however in the end, I wasn't able to keep it. At first, I felt like a failure for not being able to keep it, or make it better, but now I realize that it wasn't anything I did or didn't do. My gallbladder was simply sick, and had to be taken out.

For the last 6 weeks, I have felt horrible. It started with an attack that lasted all weekend, and I never really recovered from it. I went to my Doctor, who ran some blood tests to test my liver function and an ultrasound to see if I had a stone stuck. The blood tests came back with bad news. My liver function tests were all abnormal and my ultrasound results showed the gallbladder full of stones.

I finally went and saw a surgeon for a consult. After the consult, I felt better about making a decision to have it removed. I felt safe with the surgeon, Dr. O'toole, and felt good about getting it taken out. He explained the procedure to me, and any complications that could happen.

I realized that my stones weren't going away...I was actually making more.

My surgery was on Thursday 3-26 at noon. I had to be to swwmc Firstenburg tower at 10:30am for prep. The night before, my father game me a blessing, which helped calm my nerves and I was grateful for that. I didn't get nervous until they wheeled my bed into the O.R. room.

My anesthesiologist explain what he would be doing during the procedure, he was very comforting and joked around with me. I remember him saying in about 26 seconds you will be a sleep...the next thing I remember was him saying, that's it, you are all done. Then I asked him to go and tell my husband that I had woken up. After all, that was my only job according to Raj...just wake up.

I was in the recovery room for just a short while. I remember my eyes watering and my throat being sore and it being hard to talk. Probably because of the breathing tube. They then wheeled my bed down to the day surgery area where Raj met me. He stayed with me there until we decided that I was going to stay the night. I had tried to get up a few times to go to the bathroom, but got really dizzy. My blood pressure dropped and my lips turned blue. I was put on oxygen and the nurses watched my vitals all night. I was glad I decided to stay in the hospital...where else can you have someone wait on you! And they kept my pain very manageable with IV drugs!

All of the staff at the hospital were excellent, the nurses and CNA's, all of them went out of their way to make sure Raj and I were comfortable and happy. We left the hospital Friday around 3pm and went to Kaiser to pick up my prescriptions. I was exhausted by the time I got home.

My mom came over and saw me and brought me some flowers and jell-o. She stayed with me while Raj was at an appointment at Kaiser for himself. I don't know how I would of handled being at home that first night if I wasn't in the hospital. The vicodin they originally game me, didn't control the pain, it took a couple of changes in medicine,but they finally tried percoset, and that seemed to do the trick. Also, it was really hard to get in and out of bed. I'm grateful I had a hospital bed the first night!

On Saturday, my sister Angela stopped by with an electric heating pad and some graham crackers...as per my request! The heating pad has been my savior. It feels so good! Then Mandy stopped by in the afternoon with some homemade soup (Mandy thought it wasn't very good soup, but Raj helped doctor it up, and it was delicious!) and some flowers and some gossip magazines!

Raj's family stopped by on Saturday evening briefly to bring us some groceries, and take some of our laundry...yes, our washer decided to go out on us this week!

On Sunday, a co-worker of mine dropped by some dinner. It was so nice of her to bring it by.

I am recovering from surgery fairly well. I have to admit, I didn't expect it to hurt his much. I thought my incisions would hurt the most and would hurt for a few days...I had no idea I would hurt internally...duh...I just had an organ taken out! What was I thinking!

I am still having trouble with gas. During the surgery, they fill you up with gas so they can see everything, and the gas that is left in you is very painful. It's also hard to twist, bend, sit up, reach... I am frustrated because I am home, and would like to be working on projects, but can't because I can't even bend down to pick up anything! Oh well.

Raj is being wonderful. He's been taking good care of me, helping me to recoup slowly. He has been home on Spring Break this week, and has to go back tomorrow, so tomorrow I'll be all on my own.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's Day was, as you can guess it, full of school. I had a weekend class at Eastern and so Raj went with me and studied. Then we had to take the car to the garage. We ended up going out to dinner at Giovani's out in Beaverton. Delicious as usual. Then we came home and watched a movie called, "The visitor". It was really good.

Here are some pictures of our gifts we gave each other. As you can see, Ollie devoured one of mine!

A final Christmas Gift...

For Christmas this year, we gave Raj's family some of our time in the form of a day full of helping them make meals ahead and freeze to have available.

We spent last Saturday and Sunday with them taking inventory of what they had, buying a few groceries to complete meals, cooking the meals, and then finally dividing the food in the meal size portions and freezing it. We were exhausted after the two days, but very proud of what we were able to get done. We hope this will help them through out the next month with dinner planning. We all had such a nice time, we are going to try and do it each month this year.

Here are some pictures of the event:

Raj making black beans.

Raj's mom Nancy and Aunt Alice

Raj and Deena

 

Alice learning how to use the Seal-a-meal.

This is a picture of some of the food we made. All together we made the following: Minestrone soup, Chicken broth, Chili, Brazilian Black beans, a Chicken and rice dish, Spaghetti Sauce, saute' d onions and mushrooms to have a head to make omelets with, Muffins, and cookies.

Reflecting...

Sometimes you need to take time to reflect on where we once were in order to get over any humps we might be having while trying to achieve our goals. My goal this year is to loose the remaining weight I want to loose. (Which is approx. 50 lbs. I have already lost 70lbs.) The weight isn't coming off as easy as it was in the beginning, so it's time to reflect on my current eating habits, and exercise routines and see what I can change up to help with the goal.

While I was downloading our pictures from New Year's Eve Celebration, I came across pictures from year's pasts New Year's Eve Celebrations. I decided to post them all here so I can be reminded of where I was just a couple years ago.

2006:

 

2007:

2008:

 

Happy New Year 2009

Here is a quick smile box from New Year's Eve. Hope everyone had a safe and fun night.

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